at time when a v.a. has come to us with more than a $6 billion budget deficit, the department literally cannot afford to operate this way anymore. mega-projects are also incombattable with the best practices that took told the software industry more than a decade ago. i'm talking about agile incremental development, small scale deploys, testing by real users and component-based architecture. we're going to hear about successful use of these practices from our panel of independent experts and hopefully, from our v.a. witnesses as well. we've also seen some encouraging examples when they are solving problems with smaller systems. they recognize the outdated benefit management system and they have been proactively seg men. and modernizing it in individual parts. as with most things in government, the larger project gets the harder it is to manage and the less likely it is to ever deliver useful capability. i want to emphasize these lessons learned. we need to build up nimbler v.a. that's more responsive to the

has been successful. we spent many hours in the subcommittee discussing v.a.'s three magic -- megaprojects that are racking up schedule delays. electronic health record modernization has spent nearly $10 billion already and would cost more than 37 billion dollars to implement according to the institute for defense analysis. the true cost across the v.a. is higher than that as it does not include the enormous and additional staffing requirements where the loss in productivity. v.a. and oracle are on the cusp of resuming the rollout but there is no end in sight. after six years, financial management business transformation has only installed a momentum system in a few small corners of the v.a. and its cost estimate has more than doubled to 5.8 billion dollars according to the ida. finally, the digital g.i. bill has missed its original 2024 completion date and its final price tag will likely double as well. not only have these systems gone past schedules and budgets, they are also struggling to live up to the users expectations. however, there are signs that the v

v.a. secretary has been an utter failure. you have government unions. let's start at the v.a..let's make sure those in government are held accountable, that if they are not doing a good job, they can be fired. accountability is how you change cultures. the government unions have a grip on that. then special interests. they are unwilling to change and want to get invited to cocktail parties. they impugn and attack their opponents. the v.a. will fix it, but it doesn't. then you read a 29 page document focus just on me. then it is a hit list of everything you've ever done in your life because they don't want to argue the merits of the issue or issue a report. they just want to attack the opponents and say, we want to privatize or shut it down. it is easy to get along and you can take that example through every spectrum and level of government and every place you were going to meet resistance. every place you are going to fail again and all they want you to do is quit. all they want you to do is quit. the school board wants you to quit, the local government wants you to quit, the v

v.a. i.d. stephanie: he has insurance but worries it may not be enough in an area where home prices have skyrocketedso many, starting over here may not be an option. for now he is saying at the frthe korean war vet calls himsf a survivor. >> i have been through a lot. that is what i kept thinking. i can get through this. and that is what i am thinking now. stephanie: here in altadena, you can see that conditions have improved since i was here 24 hours ago. the smoke has somewhat cleared. you can still smell it in the air, but you're starting to see some blue sky. you're also continuing to see flames like the ones behind me and smoldering wreckage. this area is still completely closed to residents, many of whom have tried to go back to their houses but have been turned away. they did, however, let media come through this area to assess the damage today. we drove throughout the streets. there were some streets where all of the houses on a block would be burned down, but across the street houses would remain intact. sadly, i have to report that nakia rhodes' duplex is just across the street from where

v.a. system has failed to give it has and i've heard anecdotes that it has. we need to be doing everything we can to be taken care of the soldiers because guys i'd seen that of an injured there have been problems and thus part of the message we're bringing to capitol hill. it's more so for us it is the job in iraq but at the same time for the soldiers we needed to getting we can to ensure they are taken care of. >> did you suffer any entries? >> i did not. >> how about mentally? >> no, i didn't suffer any entries but it takes time to readjust when you come back. waking up in the middle of the night and thinking about, it weighs heavily on your mind and it takes time to adjust. some guys do come back with real problems and conditions that need to be addressed. war is real and you see things and you do things you hope you never have to see or do again. it takes time to adjust. >> our last phone call for pete hegseth comes from kansas city, missouri, good morning. >> hello. i'm going to be brutally honest. i i about republican, not a psychopath neocon. you sound

who's been a fox weekend anchor and who has made all kinds of outrageous statements, and i saw somebody who had actually vetted him, i think, for a low level v.a. job back in 16 and said he wasn't even qualified for that. now, apparently, after doing the weekend anchor job for these these years, now is qualified to do the work there. but make no mistake, these people who are going to be qualified. no. and actually mountains of drama. yeah. and i should make the point that the people who head up these agencies, that's not where the power is going to be. trump being trump to run everything from the white house. so with kristi noem, she's not qualified to run homeland security. she was on ways and means. you know, her whole thing was the death tax. that's what her experience says. she was on the farm death tax. okay. if you want to do the death tax, she's your gal or. shoot puppies. but on homeland, stephen miller at the white house is going to be doing homeland and then you have the guy. how many how many is that? his name? who wants to be doing the deportation? so you have these figureheads they're going to put out the agency is while trump bei